F&I and Showroom, March 2018

www fi magazine com 24 F I and Showroom March 2018 F FINANCE INSURANCE For many attendees last years NADA convention marked their introduction to Nobilis Group a new company that was formed by Dent Zone companies to unite that brand with its AutoBodyGuard and PDR LINX lines of business The company headed by its founder president and CEO Troy Good boasts a rich history that includes the origins of paintless dent repair as a viable F I product Midway between the 2017 and 2018 conventions F I and Showroom met with Good and two longtime collaborators COO Stan Starnes and Jeff Snowden senior director of agent development for the AutoBodyGuard brand and one of the industrys foremost experts in the PDR process Together the trio continues to promote the time and cost saving benefits PDR offers to dealers agents factories insurance companies and the customers they serve THE STORMCHASERS Good had already found success in the automotive industry in 1990 when he encountered paintless dent repair for the first time His windshield repair business had been hired by a national car rental company in the wake of a major hailstorm He noticed a lot full of 400 body damaged cars and was told they were awaiting paintless dent repair He said it would take three or four weeks to fix them all at 1000 apiece Good recalls I realized then that I wanted to get into that business Good was introduced to Snowden who had discovered PDR when he was working as a used car manager in the mid 80s Skeptical at first Snowden discovered that the advent of lighter more pliable sheet metal and urethane based body paint sealed with an elastic clear coat made paintless dent repair not only possible but far superior to existing methods Of course like any skill it took countless hours to master It took months and months of practice It had been a year before I could make a ding look perfect just the way I wanted it to be and it was very very difficult Snowden says One Hail of an Idea Troy Good and Jeff Snowden didnt invent paintless dent repair but they helped take it national and their efforts have paid off for dealers in hail prone states from North Dakota to Florida BY TARIQ KAMAL PHOTOS COURTESY NOBILIS GROUP INC Flanking Dent Zone founder and Nobilis Group President and CEO Troy Good are left Jeff Snowden senior director of agent development for the AutoBodyGuard brand and Nobilis COO Stan Starnes